Water-wheel



" Patented Aug. 16', 1864.

TH H MW Nu. m D. .W D

' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DANIEL DONGASTER, OF PUNXSUTAWNEY, PENNSYLVANIA.

WATER-WHEEL.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 43,838, dated August 16, 1864.

To all whom it may concern: I

Be it known that I, DANIEL DONCASTER, of Punxsutawney, in the county of J eflerson and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Turbine Water- Wheels and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, and in which Figure '1, is a view on perspective of a turbine with my improvement attached, and mounted in its frame. Fig. 2, is a perspective view of the bucket wheel and shaft. Fig. 3, is a bottom View of the bucket wheel. Fig. 4, is a sectional view of the concave, on which the guide plate rests, with the auxiliary flanged ring in place. Fig. 5, is a view in section of the auxiliary flanged ring. Fig. 6, is a view in section of the guide plate, and Fig. 7, is a View in section at the line 00 w of Fig. 3, of the bucket wheel.

It is the object of my invention to augment the bearing surface for the entering water without diminishing the escape orifices; to form a packing between the concave and bucket wheel that will prevent the escape of water between them; to accomodate any slight variation from a strictly vertical line in the main shaft, and to render the elevation of the concave easily and truly adjustable; and to this end my invention consists: First, in placing between the concave and the bucket wheel a flanged rim, which will form a water tight joint between it and the concave, and surround the outer rim of the wheel closely though its shaft may deviate slightly from a truly vertical line, in any direction. Second, in forming a conical hub on the main shaft to run in a conical opening in the center of the guide plate when the top thereof is in the same plane with the top or upper sides of the guide curves, to secure a water tight joint between it and the main shaft, and permit the easy removal of the guide plate.

To gain the largest results from a given pressure of water, the buckets of the turbine have hitherto been constructed in such form as to be continuous, and have the spaces between them wider on the top than at the bottom, and this construction is defective in not furnishing as large an impinging surface for the rush of the water into the buckets as a proper economy require for the to the use of the turbine.

power it presents the most serious objection I.

I have perfectly remedied this defect by introducing into the bucket wheel B, Fig. 2, one or more alternate short buckets a, I) seen in Fig. 7.

These short buckets a, b, extend from the upper surface of the wheel B, Fig. 2 in the same curve as, and parallel with the long buckets d, 6, but only to such a depth of the wheel as will leave the area of the openings f equal to the sum of the areas of the three several openings between narrow buckets when made continuous. In other words I cut off one or more intermediate buckets for such a distance at the bottom as to leave to the sum of the areas of the escape openings of three several buckets before being shortened, as for example the top of wheel B, Fig. 2 shows 24 buckets g, g, g, while the bottom of same wheel, 0, Fig. 3, shows 8 escape openings h 71. 71,, only, and thus the area of the escape openings is the same for every three buckets as would be the area of the escape openings of three several buckets, thus if the size of the ordinary wheel of 24 buckets required 10 square inches area of escape opening for each bucket the whole wheel would necessarily require 240 square inches; my wheel of 24 buckets of the same size would have but 8 escape openings of 30 square inches each,

aggregating the same area of opening, 240

square inches as the 24 separate buckets. By this arrangement the ordinary loose floating drift and trash that would completely choke or even stop the small 10 square inch escape opening wheel will pass with perfect freedom through my large 30 square inch escapement wheel, and this result I gain without diminishing the area of impinging surface for the flowing water.

To secure a perfectly water tight joint between the concave A, Figs. 1 and 4, and the bucket wheel B, Fig. 2, I rest a continuous circular plate 2', having attached to it a continuous flange j, on the flange 7c, of the concave A, as seen in Fig. 4. The plate 2' is in its outer diameter, a little less than the inner diameter of the concave above the flange is while the flange j is made to fit the perimeter of the bucket wheel so nearly as almost to touch it at all points, and yet leave the wheel perfectly free to rotate within it.

Now it frequently happens that from various causes a very slight departure from a perfectly vertical position of the lower axis of the main shaft takes place and produces serious obstruction to the true operation of the common turbine. This is manifestly'impossible in my invention, for it is obvious that the slip of the flanged plate i on the flange 7c of the concave will freely allow such variation of the shaft without interrupting the water tight joint or the rotation of the bucket wheel.

To form a water tight joint between the hub of the guide plate and the main shaft, I construct a conical hub D on the main shaft and a plate F on the hub E of the guide'plate G shown in Fig. 6. The plate F has a central opening flared or beveled on its edges more acutely than the angle of the cone D, that runs within this opening, and the edge of the plate may fit so neatly on the cone as to make a water tight joint when the turbine is in operation,while the difference between the angles of the opening and cone permits the easy removal of the guide plate, by lifting it first. from either side without requiring any larger opening than What I claim as my lnvention and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is:

l. The flanged sliding rim or plate between the bucket wheeland concave of a turbine water wheel substantially as andfor the purpose described. i

2. The combination of a conical hub on the main shaft with a beveled flanged top in the guide plate to forma water tight joint between the shaft and plate, and permit the removal of the latter with ease substanw tially as set forth;

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name.

DANIEL DONGASTE R.

Witnesses:

SNowDEN BELL, JNO. JoHNsoN. 

